SIDEBAR

Tryphena Flood’s apartment is practically empty compared to what it was three years ago. It might seem hard to believe — various wall units are packed with books and little collections, an assortment of vases lines one wall and a shelf against the window holds dozens of plants — but it’s true.

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In 2009, the floor was covered with stacks of magazines. Every available table top was piled high with stuff. It wasn’t until her superintendent threatened to call the fire or health department that Flood, 74, turned to The Hamilton/Halton Gatekeepers Program at Catholic Family Services (CFS) — an initiative aimed at identifying and assisting seniors with compulsive hoarding tendencies and/or Diogenes Syndrome.

Gatekeepers acts on referrals from friends, family and community members (including landlords, neighbours and repair people) says Judit Zsoldos, Team Leader with the Seniors Intervention and Support Program at CFS. Once a referral comes in, a case worker contacts the individual and tries to help. Since Gatekeepers was established in 2005, the program has assisted more than 700 cases in Hamilton and Halton. It’s a slow process, Zsoldos says, one that can take months or years depending on the person.

Flood, for example, says she has always had a lot of stuff. Growing up, her parents were collectors. She was also often sick as a child so her mother got her into art and handicrafts to pass the time. Flood and Megan Tolan, her case manager from Gatekeepers, agree it can be difficult for her to purge anything that could potentially be used for artwork, but one of the ways she’s been able to let some of her supplies go is by giving them to her grandsons. It’s always easier when she knows her things are going to people who will love them as much as she did.

There are times Flood can just toss items into a garbage bag and not look back. It was easier to donate the clothes that no longer fit when she recently lost 48 pounds. And she accepted that, as a retired food stylist, she might not need the 15 ice cream scoops she used when she was working. Same thing for 75 per cent of her 1,000 cookbooks. Flood’s motivation is threefold. Part of her is sick of living with clutter, part of her doesn’t want it to be her daughter’s problem one day and part of her is preparing to move into a small condo with her partner.

“He says I can come but my stuff doesn’t get to come,” she laughs.

Still, there are times she has to talk herself through the process. Fortunately she doesn’t have to do it alone. Up until four months ago, Tolan had been meeting with Flood weekly, for an hour at a time, to help sort things. Tolan says she walks her clients through a series of questions during these visits — what do you use this for? Why do you need it? When was the last time you used it? Would you die without it? How easy is it to get another one?

Dr. Karen Rowa, a Psychologist with the Anxiety Treatment and Research Centre at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University, also works with Gatekeepers. She spent a year visiting Flood once a month as a supplement to Tolan’s work. Rowa says this approach is a necessary part of helping people redefine the relationships they have with their possessions.

“For people with hoarding difficulties it’s often because they have an exaggerated emotional attachment or a sentimental attachment to objects or they feel that the object or possession might have a lot of use for them,” she says. “So they have pretty clear beliefs around their relationship with items that makes it hard for them to part with things.”

Flood’s visits were scaled back to monthly when she started to be able to part with things on her own. She cancelled all but one of her magazine subscriptions. A pile of boxes in the middle of the room sits waiting to be picked up for an Amnesty International auction. You can sit on the chairs and couch in her apartment. She regularly has anywhere from a couple of bags to 25 boxes of stuff waiting to donate when Tolan arrives each month.

The Gatekeepers Program has been a huge help because their client-directed approach is uncritical, says Flood. Tolan’s encouraging, non-judgmental attitude makes a huge difference.

“I guess the important thing is that it is doable even though you think it’s not,” she says. “It looks like a huge insurmountable problem, but it’s like having to eat an elephant one bite at a time.”